embedgen

Generating [Embed] metadata for images (Flex specific)

Suppose you are a little grasshoper.. Oh wait, that's not it. So, back to code.

Flex has neat mechanism for working with images by way of embeding them. The problem is that if your have to embed more than 3 images it starts to became tedious. The little jar that maven package generates is supposed that to partly automate specification of Embed classes

So let start with the images. Usually in a Flex projects images are in the src/assets folder like in the following image:

We add at the root of the Flex project an embed.properties file with the following content

src.path            = src/
                    
bitmaps.package     = acme.bitmaps
bitmaps.classes     = Backgrounds,Buttons,Icons
                    
Icons.path          = assets/icons
Icons.scale9        = no

Backgrounds.path    = assets/backgrounds
Backgrounds.scale9  = yes

Buttons.path        = assets/buttons
Buttons.scale9      = yes

I hope the format is self-explanatory.

Then in the terminal switch to the root your project (where the embed.properties file is) and run the command

$ java -jar embedgen.jar

The generated classes can be seen in the following image:

and here is the Backgrounds class

package acme.bitmaps {
	public class Backgrounds {
		[Embed(source="/assets/backgrounds/middle-background.png", scaleGridLeft=18, scaleGridTop=15, scaleGridRight=685, scaleGridBottom=351)]
		public static const MIDDLE_BACKGROUND : Class;
		[Embed(source="/assets/backgrounds/top-menu-active-button.png", scaleGridLeft=15, scaleGridTop=12, scaleGridRight=89, scaleGridBottom=30)]
		public static const TOP_MENU_ACTIVE_BUTTON : Class;
		[Embed(source="/assets/backgrounds/top-menu-normal-button.png", scaleGridLeft=10, scaleGridTop=10, scaleGridRight=106, scaleGridBottom=30)]
		public static const TOP_MENU_NORMAL_BUTTON : Class;
	}	
}

Im trying to guess acceptable values for scaleGrid.. stuff, but you can edit the values of scaleGridLeft, scaleGridTop, etc. and those will be preserverd the next time the command will be run. You can delete scale* attributes and those will not be recreated.

And, of course, you can add/delete images, re-run the command and have the code up to date with the images.

A word of warning though. I have not implemented a full parser for the fragment of ActionScript that I use, and I expect the Emded spec to be on one line, Which, is almost always the case.

P.S There is an Eclipse plugin which can run the command above from within Eclipse, but at the moment it is just a demo of how to make an Eclipse plugin using brute force and Scotch tape. A bit too dirty and personal to be shown to general public.